Perdido 03

Sunday, May 18, 2014

In the days leading up to Donald Sterling’s lifetime ban from the NBA,
one of the strongest advocates for disciplining the Clippers’ owner was
former All-Star guard and current Sacramento, Calif., mayor Kevin
Johnson.

“The players are waiting for the commissioner to act decisively,”
Johnson said in late April, speaking on behalf of the players’ union.
“They want the maximum of what the constitution and bylaws will allow
and we’re trying to figure out what that is. They want a decision to be
made quickly and decisively. If you don’t respect the players in this
league, then the values that we all espouse are for naught. If what has
been alleged and stated is authentic then there must be sanctions that
make it clear that the NBA family will have zero tolerance for such
conduct today, tomorrow or ever.”

Johnson got his wish when NBA commissioner Adam Silver banned Sterling
for life and fined him $2.5 million after Sterling admitted he made the
racist comments in a taped conversation between himself and his former
girlfriend.

But while Johnson may be viewed as a strong, moral voice in the
Sterling saga, a Deadspin report published last week revisited dark
chapters in the California politician’s past — including alleged sexual
misconduct by Johnson when he was the president and CEO of St. HOPE
Academy, a charter school organization he founded in Sacramento — and
misuse of federal funds the school received.

The St. HOPE matter came less than a decade after Johnson, according to
a joint U.S. Senate and House report, paid “$230,000 to resolve claims
brought by a Phoenix teenager who alleged Johnson molested her.”

Arizona prosecutors never filed criminal charges against Johnson in
that matter but an investigation into the ex-NBA guard’s tenure at St.
HOPE ultimately led to an August 2008 referral to the U.S. Attorney’s
office in the Eastern District of California by the Inspector General
for the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) “for
criminal and civil prosecution of Kevin Johnson” and another St. HOPE
executive for misuse of federal funds.

“I will tell you that my staff, which had a totally nonpolitical
agenda, looked into all the allegations,” says Gerald Walpin, the former
Inspector General for the CNCS, whose office ultimately made the
referral to the U.S. Attorney’s office to prosecute Johnson the same
year the former hoops star ran for mayor of Sacramento. Walpin was fired
by President Obama in the ensuing fallout. “I would not have referred
it to the U.S. Attorney’s office unless there was evidence beyond a
reasonable doubt. And there was no doubt that there was established
documentary evidence of misuse of federal funds.”